Bad Home Cookin'

[Jinmyo]

Guts.

Sproing.

Scary.

Like offal now though.

[sparrowgrass]

I just thought of another disturbing meal. My brother was an aspiring gourmet, and decided he was going to fix beef tongue for dinner. He was closeted in the kitchen for hours, chopping and simmering, and it smelled pretty darned good.

And it may have been. It may have been astonishingly delicious, but he presented it at table unpeeled and unsliced--just a big ol' cow tongue laying on the plate. Urk.

[snowangel]

It was not my mother. We grew up in Thailand with a cook.

It was those summers in Nebraska with a grandmother. The worst was (in the height of summer and sweet corn season). Canned asparagus, dumped in a saucepan, boiled for 20 minutes. But, I guess that's a way to puree if you don't have a blender.

[SuzySushi]

I just thought of another disturbing meal.  My brother was an aspiring gourmet, and decided he was going to fix beef tongue for dinner.  He was closeted in the kitchen for hours, chopping and simmering, and it smelled pretty darned good.

And it may have been.  It may have been astonishingly delicious, but he presented it at table unpeeled and unsliced--just a big ol' cow tongue laying on the plate.  Urk.

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Now, that's one that really made me laugh out loud!!!

I am thoroughly enjoying reading this thread!!!

[JPW]

My mom was a decent cook, but had a bad habit of cutting recipes out of women's magazines during the 70's.  Her worst concoction - I can still remember the taste - had the innocuous name "Seafood Casserole".  Cubed frozen fish, tiny frozen shrimp and Campbell's Cream of Shrimp soup mixed with a little cooking sherry.  It was topped with Kraft Parmesan cheese (the green can) and baked.  The thought still makes me gag.  Served over Uncle Ben's converted rice, which is responsible for making me think I hated rice until I was an adult and could cook the real thing.

Edited to say that she was an army wife on an NCO's budget until I was 7, then worked full-time after dad got out of the service.  I'm sure our food budget, and her time were extremely limited.  Hence the "time and money saving" experiments.

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Egads!

I think that mi madre inflicted the exact same recipe on us.

One of the best things that ever happened to me was when mom got her nursing degree and started working the occasional 3-11 shift. No doubt some of the early concotions I made for myself at the age of 11-12 were pretty nasty, but they were better than most of her cooking.

[hjshorter]

My mom was a decent cook, but had a bad habit of cutting recipes out of women's magazines during the 70's.  Her worst concoction - I can still remember the taste - had the innocuous name "Seafood Casserole".  Cubed frozen fish, tiny frozen shrimp and Campbell's Cream of Shrimp soup mixed with a little cooking sherry.  It was topped with Kraft Parmesan cheese (the green can) and baked.  The thought still makes me gag.  Served over Uncle Ben's converted rice, which is responsible for making me think I hated rice until I was an adult and could cook the real thing.

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Egads!

I think that mi madre inflicted the exact same recipe on us.

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Sorry to hear that Joe. Holy crap it was awful. Thank God Campbells stopped making Cream of Shrimp soup in quantity. It's not available in the DC area but mom can get it in Charlotte. It should have been declared against the law. My sister loves seafood casserole and once in a while she and mom will get together and make a batch. They know better than to do it when I'm visiting.

We also had meatballs in Cream of Mushroom, served over rice, and something called American Chop Suey that was made from elbow mac, ground beef, and a can of tomato soup.